tagged w/ World Water Day
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Every year since 1993 the world has observed March 22 as World Water Day. It is a day set aside to raise awareness of the importance of water to our lives and to the ecosystems of our planet that give us life. This year the theme is water and food security. This is an important theme especially now as the effects of climate change are now hitting the developing world where much of our food is grown and where the majority of our world's poor live. For many making the connection between water and food security is something they just do not think about. In the developed world we are so used to going into a store and buying what we want without thinking about where it came from, how it was grown or what went into it. We do not consider that when we waste food we also waste water.
The price we are and will pay regarding water scarcity and food insecurity in the future will only increase as we continue to not take this seriously. For the past decade I have reported on water scarcity in every part of the world and the effects that scarcity is having on this most precious resource and the food and people that depend on it. There are many factors involved in this crisis worldwide such as lack of political will; lack of moral will; privatization; population; pollution (resulting in physical and non physical scarcity); overconsumption (overpumping and waste) and climate change (sea level rise causing salt water intrusion, drought, flood, water evaporation, glacier melt.)
I also want to add war to this list, because as we are seeing currently in Syria and in places in the Middle East drought is already affecting agriculture which is now resulting in people rising up to demand better care of their resources because of livelihoods/lives lost and higher food prices. This is definitely an urgent factor that we need to consider regarding the future of global water resources in line with militarization of such resources which will result in more conflict.
More than 40% of our planet is now in water scarce zones. This is predicted to increase with more people moving to urban areas by 2050. Our world population has doubled since 1950 and we are on track to see 9 billion within the next twenty. Yet, we are not adequately preparing as a species regarding preserving the very resources that will sustain us. More people on this planet have a mobile phone than have a toilet. What does that tell us of our priorities?
In assessing the factors involved in the connection between water and food security all of these factors then come into play and connect with something that to me is the most important factor: Perception. As I mentioned just above more people on this planet have access to mobile phones than to toilets. And more people are becoming unattached to the world around them which I believe is contributing to the lack of caring for what is actually most important. Our zeal for progress is ironically in many ways leading us backwards.
For me progressing means moving forward technologically and evolving while also improving on and preserving those life systems that support us in a sustainable way. Polluting the water we use to grow food or wasting it in order to have it to make tarsands is not sustainable. Overpumping aquifers to put water in fossil fuel plastic bottles to make a profit for a private company while people go thirsty and hungry is not progress. Profit at the expense of life is not progress. And once again, it all comes back to our perceptions as a species: To our understanding the true value of water and finding ways to use it in preserving a progressive and sustainable society.
The good news is that this is achievable. We can feed our people while preserving our ecosystems. It requires us all to look inside ourselves and to ask how important water really is to us and to make the commitment to changing our perceptions of this world and our place in it. There are so many organizations working on doing just that and on this World Water Day and every day they deserve our gratitude and support.
In the end however, we shouldn't need one day to remind people of something that should be part of their lives everyday. And to those living in parts of this world where they know where their food comes from and just how precious the water that births the seed is, they already have this perception. Perhaps we need a World Water Day theme based on that to start.
My hope and faith lie with those who know the land and who work it. Those who are truly committed to preserving this beautiful planet for our children. Sustainable agriculture, water conservation, agroforestry, agroecology, stewardship, equality and most importantly, advocacy. 2012 can be the year when we finally begin to understand that what is important is that which brings progress and life and doing all in our power to see beyond the material, political and societal walls that now impede our evolution. Water can be the catalyst to that awakening. Make it yours today and save a life.
More at the linkEvery year since 1993 the world has observed March 22 as World Water Day. It is a day... more
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This Thursday, March 22, is World Water Day as designated by the UN and celebrated annually since 1993. This year's theme is Water And Food Security. This video presents a primer on this important topic and crisis. Throughout the week up to March 22, I will be posting different sources of information, facts and an entry on March 22 in dedication of water/food. March 22 is a day to bring awareness of water in corrolation to our use of it and the crisis we face. Join Water Is Life this week in bringing awareness and celebrating what gives us life 365 days a year.This Thursday, March 22, is World Water Day as designated by the UN and celebrated... more
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“The Incident at Tower 37” is an animated short film written and directed by animator Chris Perry, within the collaborative animation curriculum at Hampshire College in Massachusetts. The ten-minute HD animated short is a sci-fi film with a message, which was released this week in honor of World Water Day. The film tells the story of a battle over water, between a corporation that dries up a waterbody and the ecosystem that’s being destroyed. Tower 37 is siphoning every drop of water from a once-pristine lake, that is, until the station’s steward realizes that it is slowly destroying an entire ecosystem.
Perry notes that "The Incident at Tower 37" is highly allegorical: “The film tells the story of one person’s transition from ignorance to awareness. Tragically, it happens too late to save them. But it shows we have the capacity to understand our broader impact on the world and, ultimately, do something about it. My personal hope is that we all recognize the ticking clock and act responsibly sooner rather than later.”
This piece presents a number of colorful illustrations, as well as the HD animated sci-fi short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/the-incident-at-tower-37-an-epic-battle-over-water/“The Incident at Tower 37” is an animated short film written and directed... more
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Today is World Water Day, an international day of awareness and action in support of our planet’s growing water needs. World Water Day reaches people around the world, from the one in seven people worldwide who lack access to clean water to the companies, NGOs and governments that support this important cause.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UViYh7x0OhQ&feature=player_embeddedToday is World Water Day, an international day of awareness and action in support of... more
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This year's theme for World Water Day is Water For Cities. More people are moving to urban areas, the majority of this migration taking place in the developing world. This is in part due to expansion of corporate landgrabs, deforestation, overpopulation and effects of biodistress that push people into urban areas looking for a way to survive as agriculture which is the main way of life is impacted greatly.
Three quarters of our population is predicted to be living in cities by 2050 which will put a tremendous strain on infrastructure, water quality, water access and sanitation, which then leads to an increase in waterborne diseases.
Access to clean water is the moral challenge of our time and our right. So please, tomorrow take time to reflect upon the importance of clean water, water access and sanitation for those in our world lacking it. We take so much for granted here in America regarding water and the ability to have sanitation that leads to better health.
This site lists events globally and I will be posting about events in this thread as well as listing organizations working to provide clean water and sanitation and how you can help, as well as other entries about the importance of this most beautiful life giving resource.
Please feel free also to add poems, videos, comments, etc.about water here and make a pledge that for this and the next generation we will work to see all with clean water that revives our bodies and souls. This is one way that can lead people out of poverty and into a world of health and peace.
Thank you
http://current.com/groups/water-is-life/This year's theme for World Water Day is Water For Cities. More people are moving... more
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Recently I returned from a nearly month-long reporting trip about shit. If you've been following the Vanguard blog, you've probably read and seen some of the shit (literally) we'd been filming. Here's another clip from that trip. It takes place in New Delhi, India along the once-mighty, holy Yamuna River, which has today become a virtual open sewer. We took a short ride on this toxic, bubbling river and stepped off onto the riverbank... Where we were surrounded by shit. Here's a little preview of the long, sometimes excruciating month I spent on the road.
Vanguard is Current TV's original documentary series. Led by correspondents Mariana van Zeller, Christof Putzel, Adam Yamaguchi and Kaj Larsen, Vanguard features enterprising reports from around the globe. It airs every Wednesday at 10pm on Current TV.
View all Vanguard stories by visiting current.com/vanguard.Recently I returned from a nearly month-long reporting trip about shit. If you've... more
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"Human beings are flushing millions of tons of solid waste into rivers and oceans every day, poisoning marine life and spreading diseases that kill millions of children annually, the U.N. said on Monday to mark World Water Day.
'The sheer scale of dirty water means more people now die from contaminated and polluted water than from all forms of violence including wars,' the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35984832/ns/world_news-world_environment/#storyContinued
The pictures at the link are all horrifying, this one shows a boy that collects plastic from a garbage-covered river in Manila, Philippines, on March 21."Human beings are flushing millions of tons of solid waste into rivers and oceans... more
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The Story of Bottled Water, released on March 22, 2010 (World Water Day) employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap.
Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industrys attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all.
Our production partners on the bottled water film include five leading sustainability groups: Corporate Accountability International, Environmental Working Group, Food & Water Watch, Pacific Institute, and Polaris Institute.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0&feature=player_embedded#The Story of Bottled Water, released on March 22, 2010 (World Water Day) employs the... more
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Today is World Water Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness around water issues – scarcity, access and quality. It’s probably the one day each year we all really stop to think about how to better manage this precious resource.
When we talk about water issues, we generally think about water scarcity. But water quality is just as, if not more important for the over 1 billion people around the world who lack adequate access to safe, clean water.
According to a report, Sick Water, released today by the UN Environment Program, over 2 billion tons of waste (human and animal) and industrial pollution are dumped into water every day. This is water that doesn’t just flow away and disappear. It’s the stuff we drink, swim, wash and eventually eat.
Yes, people are drinking and eating shit.
I was recently in India, working on an upcoming Vanguard documentary on toilets – or the lack of toilets – for 2.6 billion people around the world. Two billion, six hundred million people who are shitting out in the open, straight into rivers, or into makeshift toilets that send untreated sewage straight into waterways.
I took a short boat ride on the once-mighty but still holy Yamuna River, the vital waterway that serves New Delhi’s 12 million inhabitants. Today, people are shitting all over it. Literally. Our boat ride was absolutely wretched – easily the most awful stench I’ve experienced (and I say this after having spent three weeks filming open defecation). The river was literally bubbling with methane, the telltale sign of shit and industrial toxins. Along the river, people would shit in, then wash in this water.
Further downstream, people drink it.
As you might imagine, there are myriad public health issues this presents, and I’ll get into that in a later post.
But in the hopes that we think about water and sanitation tomorrow and the next day, Vanguard preparing a documentary about sanitation… or rather, TOILETS AND SHIT and the drive to make these “sexier” issues.
Over the next couple months, my producers and I will be updating you on our progress here on the Vanguard site. Please check in regularly for updates on this, and the other docs we’re preparing for you later this spring.
The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting has pulled together an excellent resource on water issues here.Today is World Water Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness around water issues... more
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The Water Is Life Group on Current
http://current.com/groups/water-is-life/
will be celebrating World Water Day all this week. While I report on droughts, privitization, climate change, agriculture and the effects of our wastefulness which we need to know in order to work for change, there have also been positive stories and reasons for us to celebrate water.
And of course, having water is the main reason to celebrate. We in America don't know how fortunate we are to be able to turn on a tap, a hose, a shower, and have water come out.
For many, too many in our world however, it is a luxury many of them pay dearly for when it is a human right.
So all this week on the Water Is Life Group starting today, feel free to post stories about water triumphs, poems, articles, and anything in praise or celebration of this lifegiving liquid that is truly a miracle.
I wil also be posting stories from around the globe in celebration of water this week, and today all featured stories will revolve around the beauty of water.
Let us not wait until the well runs dry to appreciate this gift.The Water Is Life Group on Current
http://current.com/groups/water-is-life/
will... more
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Water. H2O. Agua. Eau. It makes up most of our bodies, and covers most of our planet.
Although some may take it for granted, less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use, and over 884 million people in the world lack access to safe water supplies.
According to the Stockholm International Water Institute, polluted water kills more people than wars or earthquakes, and some 3.6 million people - including 1.5 million children - are estimated to die each year from water-related diseases, including diarrhea, typhoid, cholera and dysentery (IPS News).
To create awareness about the global water crisis, and encourage people to conserve water or support organizations working to supply water to millions around the world, many are preparing to celebrate World Water Day on Monday, March 22nd.
Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. UNWater is dedicating World Water Day 2010 to the theme of water quality, reflecting its importance alongside quantity of the resource in water management.
As residents of this planet, we are all responsible for doing our part to address these global water issues. By using water more efficiently, we can help preserve water supplies for future generations, save money, and protect the environment.
Click here for 10 ways to join in the celebration and conserve water every day:
http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/celebrate-world-water-day/Water. H2O. Agua. Eau. It makes up most of our bodies, and covers most of our planet.... more
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Beginning on World Water Day, we are taking a week to celebrate the 200 million people who have gained access to safe water over the past 10 years. Watch this one-minute to see new water project celebrations around the globe.
How can you help?
To celebrate the progress made and call for continued action, Water.org has partnered with the ONE Campaign to launch oneWEEKforWATER.org. Now you can do your part and donate your voice on Facebook and Twitter in the name of clean water.
Other events
More than 21,000 women will gather to celebrate World Water Day on on March 22 in Kolakkudipatti village, India. People from hundreds of villages and slums will join elected officials, international organizations, and community leaders to recognize the importance of water, sanitation and hygiene. They gather to celebrate the improvements made in their villages and rally support for future efforts. Read about last year’s celebration here.
There are also several events planned for March 22 and 23 in Washington, DC. A collaborative of US-based organizations have joined to raise awareness and call for stronger commitments from governments, the private sector, and US citizens for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) initiatives in low-income countries.
About World Water Day
March 22 was first deemed World Water Day in 1993 by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) as an international day of observance and action to draw attention to the role that freshwater plays in our world and lives. Today’s reality is that one in eight people in the world don’t have access to safe water, millions of women and children must still spend several hours a day collecting water from distant, often polluted sources, and 2.5 billion people live without a toilet.Beginning on World Water Day, we are taking a week to celebrate the 200 million people... more
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World Water Day will be held on March 22. To mark the date, the Pulitzer Center is teaming up with the writers’ site Helium and some of the world’s most influential water advocates and NGOs to present a World Water Day writing contest. We want to hear your voices on the world’s greatest public health crisis: Inaccessibility to safe water.
Some 1.1 billion people lack reliable access to safe water that is free from disease and industrial waste. And 2.6 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation facilities. Approximately 4,500 people die everyday from waterborne diseases – more than from HIV-AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
These are among the issues addressed in Downstream, the Pulitzer Center’s interactive web portal dedicated to global water issues. To learn more about these water-related issues, you can also view Water Wars here on Current. Produced by the Common Language Project in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center, Water Wars are multimedia reports that focus on water scarcity and climate change in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.
Now, the Pulitzer Center is seeking to spur public debate by asking:
Inadequate access to safe water and sanitation claims 4,500 lives a day. What should we do about it?
This is an opportunity to have your ideas – and solutions! – showcased to thousands of readers. To submit your essay visit the Pulitzer Center website. All entries will be shown on the Helium and Pulitzer Center sites. The winner, selected from the 10 entries judged best by the Helium community, will receive a Pulitzer Center Citizen Journalist Award.
The deadline for the World Water Day Writing Contest is Wednesday March 31. The Pulitzer Center Citizen Journalist Award for this contest will be announced on Friday April 9.World Water Day will be held on March 22. To mark the date, the Pulitzer Center is... more
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By 2030 people worldwide will withdraw more water than the planet can replenish.
March 22, 2010 marks World Water Day, a 24-hour observance held annually since 1993 to draw attention to the role that freshwater plays in the world. In recent years it has focused global concern on the dwindling supply of clean water.
With governments from Australia to India feeling the heat of dryness like never before, multinational corporations pledging to become better global water citizens, and a multitude of nonprofit organizations gaining position in the councils of influence worldwide, the global freshwater crisis is steadily becoming a top public priority.
In January, global business and elected leaders assembled in Davos at the World Economic Forum learned one more striking fact that underlies international concern. By 2030, WEF experts said, people will withdraw 30 percent more water than nature can replenish. Unless practices for using and conserving water shift dramatically, shortages will hit communities and businesses, especially agriculture, which uses 70 percent of the world’s fresh water.
Here is some of what we expect in what promises to be a busy year in the world of water:
Contents
■Awareness and action
■Business of water
■Bottled Battles
■GE: One company’s approach, inside and out
■Water Disclosure Project
■United Nations CEO Water Mandate
■Water and Global Health
Awareness and Action
A team of researchers and advocates that includes the Global Water Partnership, Global Public Policy Network on Water Management, Stockholm International Water Institute and the Stakeholder Forum, have been working with hundreds of smaller groups to rally support for water’s role in international climate change negotiations this year.
The work was prompted by the disappointing outcome of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December, when water was left out of the Copenhagen Accord. The non-binding agreement calls for modest action on global warming.
If the international climate treaty doesn’t better emphasize the water-climate intersection, people living in vulnerable coastal nations, such as the island of Maldives, and farmers facing volatile rainfall, such as those in Australia, will be unprepared to face major catastrophes, Stakeholder Forum Policy Coordinator Hannah Stoddart told Circle of Blue.
At the international level, Stoddart and her team work directly with UN officials, and also are coordinating an unofficial international water day in Bonn, Germany in June. They are arranging high-level round table discussions that will rally more support for water issues in the months leading up to the next climate change summit in December, in Mexico.
“The eventual goal is for a recognition on an international level that there are currently no operational international treaties addressing water issues specifically,” Stoddart said. “We’re at the beginning of quite a long journey.”
Garnering local support is an important component of making sure the issue gains global prominence, according to marketing experts who work on environmental issues.
“It’s so hard to make people realize that they have a connection to the issue, to the sources of the problem,” said Joel Finkelstein a senior vice president and head of the environment team for Fenton Communications, a U.S.-based firm.
Water offers an even bigger challenge in some ways, he added. It’s still extremely difficult to illustrate the consequences of our current water consumption in countries like the U.S., where citizens can turn on the tap without thinking twice.
But the consequences of water scarcity are more powerfully conveyed through emotional stories than statistical reports. And Finkelstein believes that social media promises new ways to humanize water and environmental issues.
continued.By 2030 people worldwide will withdraw more water than the planet can replenish.... more
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What will your contribution be?
Excerpt from link:
Water affects every aspect of our lives, yet nearly one billion people around the world don't have clean drinking water, and 2.6 billion still lack basic sanitation. World Water Day, celebrated annually on March 22, was established by the United Nations in 1992 and focuses attention on the world's water crisis, as well as the solutions to address it.
This year, a collaborative of US-based organizations have joined to raise awareness and call for stronger commitments from governments, the private sector, and US citizens for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) initiatives in low-income countries.
By deploying the solutions that already exist, we can save the lives of thousands of children each day, advance education and employment - especially among women and girls - and fuel economic growth around the world.
Learn more about the events planned in Washington DC and around the country for World Water Day 2010 and find out how you can take action to help make clean water and sanitation a reality for people around the globe.What will your contribution be?
Excerpt from link:
Water affects every aspect of... more
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A world record in the length of a queue to a toilet was set on Sunday when 756 people lined up to a latrine in central Brussels to raise awareness for the need for clean water on World Water Day.
The event was organized by the United Nations' children's agency UNICEF which gave each participant a wristband with his or her number in the line and T-shirt certifying participation in the event.A world record in the length of a queue to a toilet was set on Sunday when 756 people... more
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More than 1 billion people on the planet don't have access to clean drinking water.
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1.4 billion people worldwide do not have access to potable water. That is outrageous especially when UN estimates predict that number to go over three billion by 2030. Water is the essence of all life on Earth. It is our sustenance that quenches our thirst, grows our food, and cleanses our bodies and souls. We are linked to this alive and lifegiving resource by a bond that goes beyond the physical. We are 70% water as the Earth is, though about only 1% of it is freshwater for human consumption and use. And we are neglecting and abusing it. This does not bode well for preserving that bond.
So many around the world still take this resource and human right for granted. So many think they can simply turn on their taps and it will always be there. However, many are finding out that is not the case if we waste it, pollute it, dam it, mismanage it, or continue the behaviors that lend to drought and global warming which evaporates it and changes its rainfall patterns. At one time this thought was not even entertained, but we are actually affecting the hydrologic cycle and based on reports of glacier melt worldwide particularly in the Himalayas, billions of people are at risk (with population statistics predicting 9 billion people by 2030) of not having enough water to grow their crops and sustain their lives.
So much of what we do everyday involves the use of water and it never asks for anything in return but for us to respect it.
Tomorrow is World Water Day. A day to honor those worldwide who have worked hard to bring potable water to those who need it most and a day to reflect on how important and precious water is to our lives and the effects of our actions.
Knowledge is power, awareness brings action. The world is at a crossroads and what we do to sustain and conserve water today saves it for tomorrow. The consequences of ignoring the global water crisis are too dire to think about. So let's not get to the point where we will have to. We can work to clean our waterways, conserve our water, adapt to climactic changes, decrease fossil fuel emissions, and most importantly demand that water be declared a human right and a public trust to bring water equity to our world and to help developing nations climb out of poverty. We have that power.
Let's use it starting now. The answer is so easy to find. It lies in us.1.4 billion people worldwide do not have access to potable water. That is outrageous... more
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Today, March 22, is World Water Day. The theme for this year is sanitation. Every 15 seconds another child dies in this world from a waterborne disease due to lack of potable water and proper sanitation. This is the most crucial environmental crisis we face along with the climate crisis, and water shortages in many parts of our world due to lack of infrastructure, mismanagement of resources, and now climate change only lend to this crisis.
Please, take time today to do something to take action to save water and call for clean water for the children of our world. I will be sending letters to my Senators today and also sending a message to all of the presidential candidates to stand up for water and to make its conservation and availability and sanitation part of their environmental platforms, and that includes not supporting energy sources that pollute our waterways ( like coal and nuclear.)
Also, take a look at this site: http://www.water.org and consider pledging to give clean water to those in our world who need it. Water is our most precious resource. Water is life.
Thank youToday, March 22, is World Water Day. The theme for this year is sanitation. Every 15... more
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